River of Lights
by Zoi no miko
Summary: Cobb/Saito, Arthur/Eames  Late one summer, Saito invites them to Tokyo to celebrate the Bon Festival with carnival games, drunken dancing, goldfish and a memorable tradition.


River of Lights

"Are you sure this will be okay?" Dom asked again, looking down at Saito's hands as they pulled the black tie tighter around Dom's waist, wrapping it around one more time and carefully tying the ends in a neat and practiced knot. The cotton yukata had been purchased for him - a steel gray with elegant patterning, fading stripes mixed with solid knot work. "All of us going out together..."

Saito glanced over to where James was running back and forth between the hotel room's bathroom and the open door to the suite beyond, the bottom of his little blue and white yukata flapping around his legs. There were little matching shorts that went underneath, keeping him from flashing anyone, thankfully. Saito chuckled softly, his own yukata a deep navy blue with muted dark blue patterning. Cobb hadn't expected it, but Saito still looked as distinguished as he did in a three piece suit. "It will be fine. We will blend in with every other attending family."

"But we're not like every other family."

Saito gave a slow nod, leaning in to press a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth. "Tonight we celebrate our ancestors. If there is a handsome gaijin man on my arm instead of a Japanese woman, it will be overlooked. The celebration and the sake is more important." He paused, then gave a wry smile. "Though they will perhaps find it amusing when I teach you to dance the Bon Odori."

"The what?"

"You'll see." Saito stood quietly for a moment, smiling, both hands resting on Dom's shoulders. "The grey makes your eyes so much more blue," he said softly, moving a hand to brush his fingertips lightly against his cheekbones. "It is very striking on you."

It was a little strange to Dom; but then, their relationship had always been strange. After all the time he spent sharing dreams with Saito in Limbo in order to wake him up, it had only taken a few weeks in the real world for them to come to the realization that they simply couldn't do without each other. And while that spark of need and desire hadn't diminished at all, Saito still seemed determined to woo him, employing things as subtle as a gentle touch to his hand when no one was looking to something as grand as this trip to Japan. He'd worried in the beginning that he'd find it stifling and push back against it, that Saito's affections would make him feel like little more than a kept woman, but Saito treated him with such quiet respect, deferring to him almost unquestioningly when it came to any extraction job. Treating him as an equal in business, despite being a rather spoiled one. "You picked it out for me," he pointed out, but Saito just smiled.

"And you wear it as if it were made for you. Thank you for coming, Dom. Truly."

They heard the beep of a swipe card in the suite door, then James' squeal came from the front room, interrupting their talk. "Uncle Arthur!"

Dom chuckled softly, leaning in to return the soft kiss before pulling away and heading to the main room. "Well well, look what the cat dragged in."

Arthur's yukata was stiffly starched and black, run through with thin threads of dark red. It tied formally at the waist with a white obi. Eames, on the other hand, was dressed as opposite as could be - his yukata made from some kind of flowing silk or polyester in a gray on gray paisley. The royal blue silk obi was tied more like a sash, low around his hips - almost indecently low. Arthur glanced over at him with a little frown. "You sure that's how it's meant to be worn?"

Eames shrugged. "I just followed the picture on the box. It seemed very fashionable."

Arthur was still staring at the sash. "You'll be naked in no time."

"Is that wishful thinking, darling?" Eames chuckled, glancing to Saito. "Is this all right?"

"Perfectly. It is a very fashionable style for young men in Tokyo. In rural Himeji perhaps it would be a little overbearing. But I thought it would suit you."

"Thank you," Eames seemed more than a little pleased, folding his arms across his chest. "So, are we just waiting for the girls, then?"

Yusuf had begged off the outing, siting work and an unpleasant experience involving too much sake and going into the wrong kind of Host Club in Kabukicho, whatever that had meant. Dom had a feeling it had more to do with the cute little blond he'd met on their last job in London. Ariadne, however, had been all for a trip to Tokyo. "Saito sent them off to some beauty parlor," Dom replied, and checked his watch - the afternoon was growing late. "Should we pick them up on the way?"

Saito shook his head. "They are being brought back here. We will take the train to Asakusa, to the festival - it is unfortunately next to impossible to take a car through traffic during Oban. But I have arranged for a reserved car on the train, don't worry. In the meantime, may I offer you some sake?"

It was a sweet, milky white unfiltered brand that Dom had rather acquired a taste for, and he leaned back against the bar in the hotel room and sipped it as he watched James with a little smile. Saito had given him a glass bottle of some kind of fizzy pop that was closed with a marble - a strange twist and and a press of the cap had popped the marble down into the bottle with an impressive hiss of carbonation, and it rolled back and forth in the neck as James sipped at it, though his son seemed more fascinated with the marble than the drink itself. Dom started a little as Saito's arm slipped between the bar and the small of his back, but relaxed into it, enjoying the quiet affection.

Saito didn't pull away until a knock came at the room door, and he opened it to Ariadne and Phillipa. "Welcome back, ladies. I hope you are happy with the salon and your yukata?"

Ariadne nodded, smiling a little nervously. "Do I look all right?" She wore lavender, light at the shoulders fading to a solid lilac at the bottom. It was patterened in purple and white, large butterflies and flowering roses touched with sparkling accents. The obi tied around her waist was a deep blue, tied into an complicated knot at the back. Her hair was pinned up into an elaborate arrangement, loose curls falling from the back to the nape of her neck, and a intricate pin made of fresh flowers and swartzki crystals was clipped into the top, matching the one attached to the front of her obi.

Saito smiled and placed both hands lightly on her shoulders, leaning down to press a soft kiss to her cheek. "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever met. Were my heart not taken, you would have stolen it completely."

"What about me, Uncle Saito?" Phillipa tugged impatiently at his yukata, and Saito turned and smiled, taking the small fan from the back of his obi and offering it to her. Her small yukata was much the same as Ariadne's, but in pink and with rather more sparkle. "Little Hime-sama, you are the most beautiful princess in the whole world."

"Can I wear my kimono to school for show and tell?" she asked, wiggling in excitement.

Saito chuckled softly, standing. "Of course you may, you may wear it whenever you like. I shall teach your father to tie it for you."

At Dom's wide-eyed stare the others laughed, following Saito out the door as they went on their way.

Dom had to admit there was a kind of magical charm to the whole festival experience - families with young children running everywhere, young couples in yukata. And enough food to feed an army. tender cooked chicken on skewers, flavoured shaved ice in cones, small plates of litle fried round takoyaki balls with small bits of chewy octopus inside, slathered in sauce and crushed seaweed and Japanese mayonaise. Saito fed him one with a toothpick, blowing on it gently before lifting it to Dom's mouth, giving a little curious smile as he chewed. "Do you like it?"

"It's... really good." Dom was a little surprised, not expecting anything that involved octopus to be palatable. Saito smiled approvingly.

"This is one of my favorite festival foods, though it is more common in Osaka than Tokyo, at least outside of festivals. It is often a little strange for foreigners. You have very Japanese taste, Mr. Cobb."

"Cobb really likes the taste of Japanese," Eames remarked with a smirk, finishing a can of Kirin beer and dropping it into a recycling bin. His remark earned him a sharp elbow from Arthur. "Ow!"

"Behave in front of the children," Arthur rebuked him mildly, ignoring Ariadne's snickering.

They afternoon turned to evening as they followed the children from stall to stall. Dom had helped James fire a cork gun at paper targets to win a prize, his son's lips stained slightly orange from the flavoured shaved ice. He watched as Saito knelt behind Phillipa at another stall, holding the sleeves of her Yukata up out of the water as she tried to scoop up a goldfish from a large pond using nothing but a tiny paddle and a cup. Ariadne proved the best at the game, winning a pair of fish for James and a second fish to go with the black one that Phillipa finally managed to catch. Dom held the bags while he watched Ariadne crouch with James and Phillipa around a bucket of water, holding tiny fireworks that seemed more like thread than a sparkler.

"You have to see whose firework finishes burning first," she told them, lighting the bottoms into tiny sparking flames. "And you have to cheer for your firework. You say, 'Go go, hanabi!'"

At one point Dom would have been too worried about the prospect of his children lighting themselves on fire to enjoy it... but they were in good hands. He perched on a bench beside Saito, letting him feed him another piece of takoyaki. "It's nice here," he remarked, shifting a little closer to Saito, smiling as the man slipped an arm around his shoulders. It was more than nice, he felt... comfortable. "It's nice enough that I'm only a tiny bit worried about where Eames and Arthur have gone."

Saito chuckled, giving a nod towards the end of the row of stalls. There was a small wooden bandstand of some kind with musicians and drummers, rings of people around it doing some kind of line dance. "I believe Arthur is teaching him how to dance the Bon Odori with a number of my associates." At Dom's skeptical look he shrugged. "They are all very drunk," he replied, as if it made everything better. "We'll go see when the children are done."

Investigating the dancing, they found Arthur and Eames at a table with a number of red-faced salary men, several who greeted Saito warmly in Japanese. Arthur seemed to be in the midst of it all, trading words with the men and with Eames, switching back and forth from English to Japanese with fluid ease. They were all laughing, passing around new cans of beer brought over by one of the men. Dom chuckled, leaving both bags of fish with Arthur, and followed Ariadne and the children out into the ring of dancers.

An older woman nodded at him, smiling kindly, shifting to make room with him in one of the rings. He scooped up James, who was laughing, taking the fan Saito handed to him and waving it around in the air randomly. Dom managed to fall into step with the others, chuckling at James' happiness, watching Phillipa go from dancing beside Ariadne to grabbing Saito's hands, jumping and laughing as he span her around.

They danced until they circle had gone around the wooden tower once, until Phillipa was tired of it, and Saito disappeared off to a stall for a moment, coming back with two cones of multicoloured cotton candy. James sat on one end of the table to eat it, swinging his feet, grinning down at the young Japanese girl who stood at her father's side, who spoke to him in broken English. He handed her a fluffy piece of cotton candy, and Dom couldn't help but smile at the idea that friendship was universal.

Saito pressed a small, cold glass jar into his hand. It was filled with light green liquid, something floating inside that looked rather like an oversized olive. "Will you drink with me, Dom?"

Dom smiled and unscrewed the lid, sniffing it - not wine, but definitely alcoholic, fruity and a little sharp. "What is it?"

"It is called Umeshu. You have tried it before, but not this brand. The Ume - the green plum - is a little sour, but some people find it refreshing."

Dom nodded, lifting the glass and meeting Saito's gaze with a little smile. "To family?"

Saito returned his nod, his smile widening a little, and he slipped one arm around Dom's waist as he clinked the jars together. "Kanpei."

Leaning into him, Dom took a sip of the drink. It was sweet and tart and refreshing - he had tasted this before, he remembered. It had been the first time he'd been out with Saito for dinner alone, in a little sushi restaurant overlooking the sea in LA. Saito's body was warm against his side, and Dom let himself enjoy it for the moment. Tomorrow they would be back to suits and propriety, but for now there was only the lights and music of the festival. "It's delicious."

"It has celebrated some of the happiest times in my life," Saito replied with a smile, holding his gaze. "Thank you."

Dom gave a soft laugh. "For what? You brought us here, you did all this."

"Thank you for drinking with me," Saito replied simply, and leaned in to press a soft kiss to his hair.

They ended the night on the Sumidagawa river, for what Saito referred to as Toro Nagashi. The banks of the river and the bridges over top of it were lined with people, many more clustered around brightly lit stalls. People standing on docks seemed to have formed bucket lines, handing along large colourful square lanterns that they set afloat in the river, drifting out into the current to join the hundreds of lights that drifted slowly away.

"It's beautiful." Arthur's voice was hushed, a little awed, and Saito glanced back with a soft smile.

"They light the way for the spirits of the dead," he replied. "It is our belief that they return on Oban, to ensure their loved ones are safe and happy. The lanterns are to aid their return to the world of the dead." He nodded to two men in suits who guarded a gate, one of which unlocked it for them and let them through. Past the gate was a private dock where a small, canopied river boat was tied. Once they were all seated inside, the man at the helm steered them carefully out into the middle of the river, paper lanterns bumping up against the side of the boat as they floated downstream.

There were three lanterns on benches at the helm of the boat, and Dom watched Saito make his way there, pressing his hands together and closing his eyes for a moment in front of them. Dom joined him after making sure the children were safe - James half asleep snuggled up against Arthur's side, Phillipa sitting at the edge of the boat with Ariadne, looking dreamily out across the water. "For your ancestors?"

Saito nodded, touching the largest - green, the paper filled with kanji, decorated with bamboo leaves. "This one, yes." He lifted the paper shade to light the small oil lamp at the bottom of the tiny boat, then crouched at the side, leaning out carefully to set it down into the water. The second lantern was smaller, pink, and only seemed to have one name amidst delicate cherry blossoms. Saito lit it as well, then pressed his fingers to his lips before touching them to the shade. Meeting Dom's questioning gaze, he gave a sad smile. "My daughter."

Dom swallowed hard. "I'm sorry."

Saito nodded. "It seems like a very long time ago." He set the lantern down into the water, watching it drift away silently for a long moment before turning back. "The third is for you, if you would like. For yourself and the children, and anyone else who would like to honor her."

His words were soft and kind, and did nothing to lessen the lump in Dom's throat. The lantern was blank, but there were strips of paper with black brush tip pens on the bench with it, and Dom took one, hesitating only a moment before writing her name in neat letters. "Thank you," he managed finally, swallowing hard. "I don't want to involve the children, not yet. It's too confusing for them still. But when they are older, I would love to come here again with you."

Saito reached over to cover Dom's hand with his own, giving a gentle squeeze. "Of course." He took a slip of paper himself, writing simply, 'Thank you', followed by neat brushstrokes that formed Japanese kanji, words that Dom looked over without wanting to understand. He stared at his own paper for a long moment and finally just wrote, 'Thank you for all that you have given me.' If she truly was watching, it would be enough, and for once the pain in his chest at her remembering had been replaced by only the warm, bittersweet sadness of memory. Arthur joined them, adding his own message to a third slip of paper, and all three were carefully glued to the lantern shade. Dom carefully lit the oil lamp as Saito had done, then leaned out over the edge to set the lantern free on the water's surface, watching it quietly drift away amidst all the other lanterns, until all he could see was one of many specks of light on the water.

"Thank you for doing all of this," he said softly to Saito as they sat in the boat, the canopy lights turned off to watch the fireworks that went off over the water. He looked over at the children who sat at the edge of the boat, still carefully watched by Arthur and Eames and Ariadne, laughing in delight as the fireworks lit up the sky over their heads.

"It has been my deepest pleasure," Saito replied, slipping an arm around around his back, drawing him a little closer. He leaned in to press a soft kiss to Dom's temple, voice lowering even more. "Boku wa aishteru, Dom."

He only knew the little Japanese that Arthur and Saito had taught him, but he knew this. And he knew it without hearing it, knew it in every touch, every word Saito spoke to him, every kiss they shared. Still his breath caught in his throat with a surge of happiness, and he leaned in to press his lips to Saito's, warm and tender.

"Boku mo aishteru."

~~~~ 


End file.
